What’s In A Name?

Henry McCarty becomes The Kid…

December 3, 1880. W.S. Koogler, co-owner of the Las Vegas Gazette, publishes a long article on crime in the Pecos and Panhandle country of New Mexico Territory. And he names names: they are “under the leadership of ‘Billy the Kid,’ a desperate cuss, who is eligible for the post of captain of any crowd, not matter how mean and lawless.”  It’s the first time Henry McCarty/Antrim/William Bonney/the Kid is called “Billy the Kid” in print.